Kojima Reflects on Snatcher, Adventure Games

A look back at the wilder days of game development.

Hideo Kojima might be best known these days for Metal Gear Solid and his ability to heavily confuse gamers with his stories, but 20 years ago, he was just another schlub in the industry, working largely by himself and making adventure games like Snatcher. He went full circle in this week's issue of Famitsu magazine, talking with adventure-game writer Jiro Ishii about the genre and how it influenced his career.

Ishii is the main man behind 428: In the Blocked City Shibuyaa visual novel that shocked many when Famitsu gave it a perfect review score last year. "I first met Ishii this year," said Kojima, "but I knew about him a long time previous. I get told by people that there are only three guys in Japan who like adventures: me, Ishii and Shu Takumi," the writer of Capcom's Ace Attorney series.

Both Ishii and Kojima were heavily influenced by Blade Runner, a movie that Kojima's Snatcher is almost identical in style to. Ishii himself created a Blade Runner-styled adventure game back in the day called Imitation City, released 1987 (a year before Snatcher) for Japanese PCs. "We're both pretty close to each other in that the movie business has been near and dear to our hearts," Kojima noted. "The only difference is that he's been able to keep making adventures this whole time. It's funny to think that during an era when there was nothing but Mario-style games, there was somebody else out there who wanted to make a Blade Runner-like title, a year before me to boot. It took me a year and a half to get half of Snatcher done; I had six chapters planned out and they told me to cut it down to two!"

Kojima still has fond memories of his 8-bit days, at least in part because it was a wilder time for the industry in general. "Younger people probably wouldn't understsnd, but you know Gunbuster, right?" referring to the 1988 anime miniseries from Gainax. "That was sort of created as a giant homage by a bunch of science-fiction geeks. Snatcher was pretty much the same way; there's a ton of references in the game that sort of skirt copyright laws. I never worried about that back then, because doing what I liked in games -- an interactive form of media -- was in itself a new thing for me. The industry sort of grew along with me, and before I realized it, I started to work with really big budgets."

"I think we were born at just the right time," Kojima continued. "We both started with smaller games, so we had to do everything by ourselves. Games development these days is completely compartmentalized; you have people who do nothing but make the logo for a game. I think that's kind of a shame. Things are just different. Ourselves, we're like the people who made their own films before making it big in Hollywood. I think we've got the skills we need to make anything we want, anywhere we want, on any budget we want. That's where my pride, or my confidence, comes from."

Where does Kojima see the industry going? As you'd expect from his previous comments, he's quick to sound the warning bells. "This point isn't limited to the game business, but if we don't have an environment where developers can make what they want and find an audience for it, then I think it's all going to come crashing down," he said. "I think we'll see fewer people wanting to get into games, and that's dangerous."

and the sega cd version of snatcher frisking sucks balls the pc engine turbografx 16 cd and sega Saturn game is superior in everyway if you was not using a light gun. If your going to get the fricking censored game get the 32-bit version the sega cd version was useless, with those on the market.

Hummm.

"Where does Kojima see the industry going? As you'd expect from his previous comments, he's quick to sound the warning bells. "This point isn't limited to the game business, but if we don't have an environment where developers can make what they want and find an audience for it, then I think it's all going to come crashing down," he said. "I think we'll see fewer people wanting to get into games, and that's dangerous.""

Which is manily the westren market....but didn't Kojima say he's inspired by the westren market and even one of his upcoming projects is influnced by westren game devolpement?

@EGMForvever1989

I completely agree. When I had a chance to meet and talk with him during the MGS4 signing at Uniqlo in NYC (was covering it then for UGO.com) I begged him for a Policenauts sequel with the original localized on the bluray... He laughed at me and just gave this playful "all knowing" smile....

Kojima

Needs to Remake Snatcher and Policenauts for XBLA or PSN or PSP. Also he needs to make Zone of Enders 3!!!

Seriously though i kind of agree with him. i miss the old "wild west" days of gaming where there were tons of different consoles, developers, publishers etc. that wild competition brought out some amazing games, products and perepherals as well as some "what the hell were you thinking" moments that brought character and charm to those days of 1980-1995 before things calmed down to "the big three" and we had two or three monolithic publishers pushing out regurgitated safe shit.

Awesome...

Hideo Kojima needs to make another adventure game, one that gets translated. Also, I agree with that whole idea of market crash, indie developers are becoming more and more popular, while large scale developers are slowly dying, something needs to be done.